U.S. patent application number 10/054719 was filed with the patent office on 2002-09-12 for cable billing systems and methods enabling independence of service marketing and provisioning from billing and collection of revenue.
Invention is credited to Buehl, Joseph G., DeFreese, Darryl Lanay.
Application Number | 20020129358 10/054719 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 26733394 |
Filed Date | 2002-09-12 |
United States Patent
Application |
20020129358 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Buehl, Joseph G. ; et
al. |
September 12, 2002 |
Cable billing systems and methods enabling independence of service
marketing and provisioning from billing and collection of
revenue
Abstract
Systems and methods that divide the billing function of a
billing system from the provisioning function of a service in
digital cable systems. Because the billing system is only
responsible for billing, rather than the provisioning of services,
new services may be quickly added to cable systems without the time
consuming and expensive task of configuring the billing system
specifically for new services added to the system. The services are
implemented using an offering package created by the service, where
the offering package contains billing related information forwarded
to the billing system to bill for the service.
Inventors: |
Buehl, Joseph G.; (Studio
City, CA) ; DeFreese, Darryl Lanay; (Lawrenceville,
GA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
ALSTON & BIRD LLP
BANK OF AMERICA PLAZA
101 SOUTH TRYON STREET, SUITE 4000
CHARLOTTE
NC
28280-4000
US
|
Family ID: |
26733394 |
Appl. No.: |
10/054719 |
Filed: |
January 18, 2002 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
|
|
|
|
|
|
Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
60263176 |
Jan 22, 2001 |
|
|
|
Current U.S.
Class: |
725/1 ;
348/E7.063; 725/2; 725/23 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04N 21/84 20130101;
G06Q 30/04 20130101; H04N 7/165 20130101; H04N 21/2543
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
725/1 ; 725/2;
725/23 |
International
Class: |
H04N 007/16 |
Claims
That which is claimed:
1. A digital delivery system facilitating the provisioning and
billing of a service offered to subscribers, comprising: at least
one service, wherein the at least one service generates an offering
marketed to a subscriber of the digital distribution system, and
wherein the offering comprises metadata and a price algorithm; and
a billing system in communication with said at least one service,
wherein the billing system is capable of interpreting the metadata
to generate a bill corresponding to the offering.
2. The digital delivery system of claim 1, wherein the a billing
system maintains at least one table comprising tax-related
information associated with the offering.
3. The digital delivery system of claim 1, wherein the metadata
comprises a plurality of billing items, and wherein said billing
system identifies at least one of said billing items for inclusion
in the metadata.
4. The digital delivery system of claim 1, further comprising a
marketing component, wherein said marketing component provides
marketing data associated with the offering to said price
algorithm.
5. The digital delivery system of claim 1, wherein said price
algorithm computes an offering price for the offering.
6. The digital delivery system of claim 1, further comprising a
network controller in communication with said at least one service,
for provisioning the offering to a set-top box.
7. The digital delivery system of claim 6, wherein said network
controller is in indirect communication with said billing
system.
8. An offering that facilitates the provisioning and billing of a
service to a subscriber in a digital delivery system, comprising:
metadata, wherein the metadata comprises billing related
information identified by a billing system and generated by said
service, wherein said metadata is utilized by the billing system to
compute a bill for the offering; and a price algorithm, wherein
said price algorithm generates a list price for said offering, and
wherein said list price is used by said billing system to compute a
bill for the offering.
9. The offering of claim 8, wherein said offering corresponds to a
line item on a bill generated by said billing system.
10. The offering of claim 8, wherein said price algorithm generates
a list price for said offering based upon marketing data associated
with said offering.
11. The offering of claim 10, wherein said marketing data is
provided by a marketing server.
12. A method of facilitating the provisioning and billing of a
service in a digital delivery system, comprising: generating an
offering representing an item for purchase from the service,
comprising: querying a billing system to determine billing related
metadata interpretable by said billing system, and creating said
offering, wherein said offering comprises metadata corresponding to
said billing related metadata identified by said billing system;
and forwarding said metadata to said billing system such that said
billing system can generate a bill for said offering based upon
said metadata.
13. The method of claim 12, wherein creating an offering further
comprises creating an offering comprising a price algorithm,
wherein said price algorithm is utilized to compute a list price
for said offering.
14. The method of claim 12, further comprising generating a bill at
said billing system for said offering based upon said metadata.
15. The method of claim 14, wherein generating a bill for said
offering based upon said metadata comprises accessing at least one
tax related table in said billing system to determine taxes
associated with said offering.
16. The method of claim 12, further comprising provisioning said
offering to a subscriber of said digital delivery system, wherein
said provisioning is implemented by said service.
17. The method of claim 16, wherein said provisioning further
comprises determining whether said subscriber is authorized to
receive said offering, and wherein said determination is executed
by said billing system.
18. The method of claim 16, wherein provisioning said offering
includes instructing a network controller to distribute content
associated with said offering.
Description
RELATED APPLICATION DATA
[0001] The present application claims priority from U.S.
Provisional Patent Application No. 60/263,176, titled "Service
Offering Price Computation", filed on Jan. 22, 2001, the entire
contents of which are incorporated by reference herein.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] This invention relates in general to the field of cable
systems, and more particularly, to billing for services in digital
cable systems.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] Historically, television services have been comprised of
analog broadcast audio and video signals. Cable television systems
now receive broadcasts and retransmit them with other programming
to users over land-line networks, typically comprising fiber optic
cable and coaxial cable. With the recent advent of digital
transmission technology, cable television systems are now capable
of providing much more than the traditional analog broadcast video.
For instance, two-way and advanced one-way communications between a
subscriber and a cable system headend are now possible.
[0004] In implementing enhanced programming, the home communication
terminal, otherwise known as the set-top box, has become an
important computing device for accessing video services and
navigating a subscriber through a maze of available services. In
addition to supporting traditional analog broadcast video
functionality, digital set-top boxes now also support an increasing
number of services which are digital two-way communications, such
as video-on-demand, email and web-browsing. These are all in
addition to the host of other television services which are
increasingly being demanded by consumers, examples of which include
audio and audio/visual programming, advanced navigation controls,
impulse pay-per-view technology, and on-line commerce.
[0005] With the addition of interactive services, increased
bandwidth and the emergence of bi-directional communication
capabilities available through a digital television system, there
is a need to provide standard methods and systems for billing
services provided by and accessed by a subscriber from service
providers. Currently, billing systems are integrated into cable
systems such that the billing vendors are responsible not only for
billing for a service, but for provisioning the service in the
system. The billing component of the cable system is typically
outsourced to billing vendors, which manually update customer lists
each time a new customer is added by the cable system and send out
bills every month. This structure has operated well for many years,
as the cable industry originally had only one service
offering--video. However, cable evolved to offer channels and
services that required customers to need a subscription.
Additionally, interactive services such as PPV were created, in
which a subscriber can contact the cable company and instantly
request a particular movie.
[0006] Up until recently there have not been many new services
added to cable systems, and conventional billing system vendors
could write new code to account for the different requirements of
each service. These requirements included not only executing
billing for a service, but in fulfilling the service because the
billing system must send a message to the network controller
indicating that a service should be provided to a subscriber who
has been authorized. Therefore, if a subscriber called up the cable
company and requested a PPV movie, a customer service
representative would be operating a terminal running software
provided by the billing vendor that tells the network controller to
authorize the STB to play the movie. The billing vendor would then
make a record of that purchase.
[0007] Now, with interactive services such as AOL TV, service
providers have to go to billing vendors each time a new service is
rolled out, which is inefficient due to the expense and time
required to modify billing software. Typically a year or more is
required for a billing vendor to implement a new service.
Therefore, what is needed is a billing system that is not involved
in the fulfillment of a service while retaining all of the
necessary billing and authorization functions of a conventional
billing system.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0008] The present invention provides for a billing system that
allows a billing entity to authorize and bill subscribers without
requiring that the billing system be included in the fulfillment of
service.
[0009] According to one embodiment of the invention, there is
disclosed a digital delivery system facilitating the provisioning
and billing of a service offered to subscribers. The delivery
system includes at least one service, where the at least one
service generates an offering marketed to a subscriber of the
digital delivery system, and wherein the offering comprises
metadata and a price algorithm. The system also includes a billing
system in communication with the at least one service, where the
billing system is capable of interpreting the metadata to generate
a bill corresponding to the offering.
[0010] According to one aspect of the invention, the billing system
maintains at least one table comprising tax-related information
associated with the offering. According to another aspect of the
invention, the metadata includes a plurality of billing items,
where the billing system identifies at least one of the billing
items for inclusion in the metadata.
[0011] The digital delivery system of the present invention can
also include a marketing component that provides marketing data
associated with the offering to the price algorithm, and a network
controller in communication with the at least one service, for
provisioning the offering to a set-top box. The price algorithm can
compute an offering price for the offering. Additionally, the
network controller may be in indirect communication with the
billing system.
[0012] According to another embodiment of the invention, there is
disclosed an offering that facilitates the provisioning and billing
of a service to a subscriber in a digital delivery system. The
offering includes metadata and a price algorithm. The metadata
comprises billing related information identified by a billing
system and generated by the service, where the metadata is utilized
by the billing system to compute a bill for the offering. The price
algorithm generates a list price for the offering, where the list
price is used by the billing system to compute a bill for the
offering.
[0013] According to one aspect of the invention, the offering
corresponds to a line item on a bill generated by the billing
system. Furthermore, the price algorithm can generate a list price
for the offering based upon marketing data associated with the
offering. According to another aspect of the invention, the
marketing data is provided by a marketing component, which may
include a cable company marketing department.
[0014] According to yet another embodiment of the invention, there
is disclosed a method of facilitating the provisioning and billing
of a service in a digital delivery system. The method includes
generating an offering representing an item for purchase from a
service, and forwarding metadata within the offering to a billing
system such that the billing system can generate a bill for the
offering based upon the metadata. Generating an offering includes
querying a billing system to determine billing related metadata
interpretable by the billing system, and creating the offering,
where the offering comprises metadata corresponding to the billing
related metadata identified by the billing system.
[0015] According to one aspect of the invention, creating an
offering further includes creating an offering comprising a price
algorithm, where the price algorithm is utilized to compute a list
price for the offering. The method can also include generating a
bill at the billing system for the offering based upon the
metadata. Generating a bill for the offering based upon the
metadata can also include accessing at least one tax related table
in the billing system to determine taxes associated with the
offering. According to another aspect of the invention, the method
can further include provisioning the offering to a subscriber of
the digital delivery system, where the provisioning is implemented
by the service, rather than the billing system. Furthermore,
provisioning the offering can further include determining whether
the subscriber is authorized to receive the offering, wherein the
determination is executed by the billing system. Additionally,
provisioning the offering can include instructing a network
controller to distribute content associated with the offering.
[0016] Many objects, features and advantages of the present
invention will become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art
upon examination of the following drawings and detailed
description.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0017] Having thus described the invention in general terms,
reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, which are
not necessarily drawn to scale, and wherein:
[0018] FIG. 1 is a high-level block diagram view of a Digital
Distribution and Delivery System in accordance with an embodiment
of the present invention.
[0019] FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a conventional billing
system of the prior art.
[0020] FIG. 3 shows a block diagram view of a billing system of the
present invention according to one aspect of the invention.
[0021] FIG. 4 shows a block diagram view of a billing system of the
present invention according to one aspect of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0022] The present invention now will be described more fully
hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which
preferred embodiments of the invention are shown. This invention
may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be
construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather,
these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be
thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the
invention to those skilled in the art. Like numbers refer to like
elements throughout.
[0023] FIG. 1 shows a block diagram view of a digital distribution
and delivery system (DDDS) 10. Generally, the DDDS 10 is a an
integrated network system that features video, audio, voice and
data services transmitted to Cable television (TV) subscribers.
Although FIG. 1 depicts a high level view of a DDDS 10 including a
single HFC Network 35, as will be described below, it should be
appreciated that a plurality of DDDSs including multiple HFC
Networks can tie together a plurality of regional networks into an
integrated global network so that Cable TV subscribers can receive
content provided from anywhere in the world. The DDDS 10 delivers
broadcast video signals as digitally formatted signals in addition
to delivering traditional broadcast analog video signals.
Furthermore, the DDDS 10 can support one-way broadcast services as
well as both one-way data services and two-way media and data
services. The two-way operation of the network allows for user
interactivity with services, such as Pay-Per-View programming, Near
Video-On-Demand (NVOD) programming (according to any of several
known NVOD implementation methods), Video-on-Demand (VOD)
programming (according to any of several known VOD implementation
methods), and interactive applications, such as Internet
connections and interactive services that render real-time
bi-directional communication on a personalized basis such as
bi-directional audio-visual communication.
[0024] The DDDS 10 also provides the interfaces, network control,
transport control, session control, and servers to establish
on-demand session-based bi-directional communication service
between a particular remote destination and a set-top box user for
delivering media from the particular remote destination to the
set-top box user and input information from the set-top box user to
the particular remote destination. A remote destination during a
session of a bi-directional communication service may comprise a
remote personal destination such as a friend or a remote vendor
that offers a bi-directional communication service for a
purchasable period of time in which a viewer communicates real-time
with the vendor on a personal basis. In either case, dedicated DDDS
resources are allocated to fulfill individualized bi-directional
communication over a purchasable period.
[0025] Referring again to FIG. 1, the DDDS 10 is composed of
content/service providers 15, at least one network operations
center (NOC) 20, a high speed distribution network 25, a headend
30, an HFC Network 35 and subscribers' set-top boxes 40. It should
be appreciated that although FIG. 1 includes a number of single
components (i.e., NOC, headend, HFC network), the DDDS 10 can
feature a plurality of each of the illustrated components. The
content/service providers 15 represents one or more providers of
content, such as video channels, music channels, data channels,
video services, audio services and data services. For example,
according to one aspect of the invention, a content/service
provider 15 could comprise a distributor of movies. According to
another aspect of the invention, the content/service providers 15
could represent an Internet Service Provider (ISP) providing data
to the system to enable subscribers web access or web-enhanced
video via the subscriber's television set. The content/service
provider 15 transmits the content to a headend 30 via a high speed
distribution network 25 for further transmission to subscribers
downstream in the network. Also in communication with the headend
30 is the NOC 20, which is an external management center interfaced
with the DDDS 10 to allow for the remote operation of the system.
Typically, the high speed distribution network 25 includes one or
more satellite and/or fiber optic components and links for
high-speed data transmission of content and/or services to the
headend 30. It should be appreciated that the high speed
distribution network 25 represents hardware and software components
for electrically transmitting content and/or services to the
headend 30, as opposed to physically carrying or transporting
content, such as a video tape or digital video disc, from the
content/service provider 15 to the headend 30..
[0026] From the headend 30 content and/or services are communicated
by a Hybrid/Fiber Coax (HFC) Network 35 to the subscriber set-top
boxes 40. The HFC Network 35 typically comprises a plurality of HFC
nodes, each which may service a local geographical area. More
specifically, content and/or services are provided from the
content/service provider 15 via transmission through the headend 30
and HFC Network 35 downstream to one or more taps that connect to a
subscriber's set-top box 40 through coaxial cable in a logical tree
configuration, which is where the optical-to-electrical and
electrical-to-optical conversations of the HFC network 35 take
place. It will be appreciated by those of skill in the art that the
system 10 may include a number of additional elements, such as
Hubs, HFC nodes, taps, network interface units, RF amplifiers, and
the like. However, because the general features of a DDDS is well
known to those of skill in the art, further description is not
contained herein.
[0027] FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of components comprising a
conventional cable system 50 of the prior art. The system 50
generally includes a billing system 60, network controller 65, STB
70, and subscriber 75. The network controller 65 communicates with
the HFC network 35 to allocate system resources to establish
communication paths to fulfill service requests. In operation,
subscriber 75 requests are transmitted to the billing system 60,
which communicates with the network controller 65 and instructs the
network controller 65 to fulfill the requested service.
[0028] To bill for a particular service item (e.g., a PPV movie)
requested by the subscriber, such as via the STB 70 or through a
conventional telephone call, a modem or the like, the billing
system 60 sends a message to the network controller 65 that
instructs the controller 65 to provide the subscriber 75 the
service item. This is typically done only if the billing system 60
determines that the subscriber 75 is authorized to receive the
requested service item. This determination is made by the billing
system 60 through a lookup of a subscriber profile associated with
the requesting subscriber, and an analysis as to whether the
subscriber profile indicates that the subscriber has sufficient
funds and the authority to receive the requested service item. This
determination also requires that the billing system 60 know the
price of each service item the billing system 60 provisions.
[0029] After determining that the subscriber 75 is authorized to
receive the requested service item the billing system 60 instructs
the controller 65 to transmit a message to the STB 70 that
authorizes the STB 70 to receive the service item. The billing
system 60 then prints a bill 55 that corresponds to the service
item. It will be appreciated that the billing system 60 therefore
is not only involved in billing for a service, but in fulfilling or
provisioning the service item because the billing system 60 must
instruct the controller 65 that the service item should be provided
to a STB 70 associated with an authorized subscriber 75. According
to one illustrative example, if the subscriber 75 called up the
cable company and requested a PPV movie, a customer service
representative would be operating a terminal running software
provided by the billing system 60 that tells the network controller
65 to authorize the STB 70 to play the movie. The price of the
movie, as maintained by the billing service 60, is then added to
the subscriber's bill 55.
[0030] FIG. 3 shows a block diagram view of components comprising a
cable system 100 of the present invention, according to one
embodiment of the invention. It should be appreciated that the
systems and methods of the present invention are described below
with reference to block diagrams and flowchart illustrations of
systems, methods, apparatuses and computer program products
according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood
that each block of the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations,
and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and flowchart
illustrations, respectively, can be implemented by computer program
instructions. These computer program instructions may be loaded
onto a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other
programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such
that the instructions which execute on the computer or other
programmable data processing apparatus create means for
implementing the functions specified in the flowchart block or
blocks.
[0031] These computer program instructions may also be stored in a
computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other
programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular
manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable
memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction
means that implement the function specified in the flowchart block
or blocks. The computer program instructions may also be loaded
onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to
cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer
or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented
process such that the instructions that execute on the computer or
other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the
functions specified in the flowchart block or blocks.
[0032] Accordingly, blocks of the block diagrams and flowchart
illustrations support combinations of means for performing the
specified functions, combinations of steps for performing the
specified functions and program instruction means for performing
the specified functions. It will also be understood that each block
of the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, and combinations
of blocks in the block diagrams and flowchart illustrations, can be
implemented by special purpose hardware-based computer systems that
perform the specified functions or steps, or combinations of
special purpose hardware and computer instructions.
[0033] According to the systems and methods of the present
invention, the billing system is only responsible for billing,
rather than the provisioning, of services. This allows new services
to be quickly added to cable systems without the time consuming and
expensive task of configuring the billing system specifically for
new services added to the system. Referring now to FIG. 3,
components comprising a cable system 100 of the present invention
are illustrated. The system 100 includes a billing system 110, a
service 115, a network controller 130, a subscriber 140 and a STB
135. The network controller 130, STB 135 and subscriber 140 are
identical in form and function to the network controller 65, STB 70
and subscriber 75 illustrated in FIG. 2. However, unlike the system
of FIG. 2, where the billing system 60 provisions a service item,
the service 115 is responsible for fulfilling a request for a
particular service in the system 100 of FIG. 3. It should be
appreciated that although only one service 115 is illustrated in
FIG. 3, multiple services may be included in the system 100.
Furthermore, although the service 115 of FIG. 3 is discussed herein
with reference to an MOD service, it should be appreciated that
this is a non-limiting example of any type of service that can be
implemented in the system 100.
[0034] Services may be located at one or more headends in the cable
system 100, and are associated with at least one application for
implementing the service, as is discussed in detail with respect to
FIG. 4. Therefore, it should be appreciated that there are one or
more applications installed in the headend, each of which is
associated with one or more services. These applications work in
conjunction with subscriber STBs to implement a requested service.
Although the service 115 provisions services in the system 100 of
FIG. 3, the billing system 110 still provides billing functions as
will be described in detail below. By splitting the provisioning
function from the billing function the fulfilling of a service,
such as authorizing video to be transmitted to a particular STB,
systems and methods of the present invention allow new services to
be implemented in the system 100 without requiring that an existing
billing system 110 be altered to meet the demands of the new
service. This results in faster implementation of new services in
the network 100. Furthermore, existing system components, such as
those illustrated in FIG. 2, do not need to be altered to effect
the advantages of the present invention.
[0035] To divide the billing function of the billing system 110
from the provisioning function of the service 115, the service 115
generates at least one offering 120, which contains a price
algorithm 125 and metadata 127. The offering 120 is used by the
system 100 to provision and bill for a service item made available
to the subscriber 140 from the service 115. According to one aspect
of the invention, offerings are created for each service item that
is purchasable by a subscriber 140. For instance, according to one
illustrative embodiment of the invention the service 115 may be a
Movie-On-Demand (MOD) service that is associated with an MOD
application for provisioning the MOD service to enable a
subscriber-requested movie to be transmitted to and received at the
subscriber's STB. Because a typical MOD service contains multiple
movies that are purchasable by a subscriber, the MOD service
creates independent offerings associated with each movie. In this
example each movie has a corresponding offering because the
offering is utilized to implement the service and bill the
subscriber for the particular movie purchased from the MOD service.
And because each movie is associated with one offering, the
offering can be used to create a line item entry on a subscriber
bill that corresponds to the purchased movie.
[0036] According to one embodiment of the invention, the offering
120 is set up using extensible markup language (XML), though it
will be appreciated by those of skill in the art that other methods
of creating an offering can be used. Although only one offering is
illustrated in FIG. 3, the service 115 can include multiple
offerings, each of which include corresponding price algorithms and
metadata. The price algorithm is utilized for computing the price
of an offering for a particular customer, and the metadata is
utilized by the billing system 110 to compute the actual price of
an offering 120.
[0037] Regardless of the particular type of service 115 implemented
in the system 100, each service 115 utilizes offerings 120 to
represent an offer to sell a service, or some item of the service,
to a subscriber 140. Exactly what the offering represents will
depend on the nature of the service 115 that defines the offering
120. For instance, an offering may be a particular channel, stream,
session or the like, of AOL television, PPV, MOD, interactive
sports, or other well known services. Thus, the offering for an MOD
service may be completely different than an offering that allows a
subscriber to order a pizza over the Internet. Though the offerings
vary according to the service 115 being implemented, the metadata
127 within the offering 120 appears the same to the billing system
110 regardless of the type of service. This allows metadata 127 to
be utilized by the billing system 110 to compute the actual price
of an offering 120 regardless of the type of offering 120 or
service 115 implemented in the system 100.
[0038] In generating an offering the service 115 requests a list of
all metadata items that the billing system 110 can interpret. This
allows the service 115 to create offerings having metadata 127 that
is understood by the billing system 110. The service 115 can
retrieve this list of metadata items periodically, or the request
can be executed by an operator or administrator of the service. An
operator creating the offering 120 at the service 115 can therefore
view the list of metadata and can generate the offering 120 to
include particular items in the offering metadata 127. For
instance, where a new interactive service is implemented in the
system 100, the service 115 may identify that the billing system
110 is capable of receiving metadata representing the price of an
offering, the identity of the subscriber, taxes associated with the
subscriber's locality, and additional billing-related information
well known to those of skill in the art. Thus, in creating the
offering the service 115 will include in the metadata 127 price,
identification, tax, and other fields that can be interpreted by
the billing system 110. Therefore, in constructing each offering
120 the service 115 ensures that the offering 120 includes
sufficient metadata to enable the billing system 110 to bill the
subscriber for the appropriate amount for the offering 120. In
generating an offering the service not only communicates with the
billing system 110 to ascertain the type and form of metadata
understood by the billing system 110 such that the service 115 can
generate an offering 120 containing generic billing-related
metadata understood by the billing system, but also tax-related
category information associated with the service 115. Each offering
120 for a particular service 115 is subject to a particular tax
structure, which is included in the offering 120 metadata 127.
[0039] Because the offering 120 includes particular metadata items,
whenever a purchase of the offering 120 is recorded this
information is transmitted to the billing system 110 so the billing
system 110 can interpret how to generate a bill 105, or a line item
on a bill 105, for the service 115. Furthermore, because the
billing system 110 handles complex bill-related calculations, the
generation of a bill 105, and billing the subscriber, the service
115 must only concern itself with generating an offering 120 having
the requisite price information corresponding to the particular
offering. Because the service 115, which is typically implemented
by software developers, simply requests metadata information with
the billing system 110, the service or developers of the service
115 need not know any details about the details of the billing
system 110. Likewise, the service 115 need not know any information
regarding specialized pricing information such as taxes or
franchise fees or the like associated with the provision or
purchase of a service offering. Rather, each service 115
implemented in the system 100 must only include an offering 120
that operations personnel can populate with particular information
for a service. Thus, there is no need for the developer of the
service 115 to know anything about how billing is executed.
[0040] As noted above, the offering 120 includes metadata 127 and a
price algorithm 125 More specifically, the metadata 127 is used by
the billing system 110 to compute the actual price and the price
algorithm 125 is used to gather pricing data from one or more
marketing components 129 to compute the list price shown to
subscribers. This pricing data can include the price, discounts,
marketing campaigns and promotions (collectively referred to herein
as marketing data) associated with an offering 120. Therefore, the
metadata 127 does not include marketing data, which is contained
within the price algorithm 125, as noted above. The marketing
components 129 can be included within the service 115 (as
illustrated) or separate from the service 115, and provide the
costs and/or discounts for particular offerings. According to one
aspect of the invention, the marketing component 129 can comprise a
cable company marketing department which generates the marketing
data. According to another aspect of the invention, the marketing
component can comprise one or more applications running on servers
established by a marketing department or similar marketing entity.
For instance, a marketing component within an MOD service may offer
subscribers a buy-one-get-on-free deal, in which two movies are
offered for the price of one. It should be appreciated that the
marketing component considered by the price algorithm 125 to
generate discounted prices differs from the billing system 110 in
that the marketing component is utilized only to determine a list
price which is offered to subscribers for a particular offering or
set of offerings. Therefore, the price algorithm 125 computes a
list price offered to subscribers, whereas the billing system 110
computes additional costs unrelated to the price offered to
subscribers and the ultimate price that will appear on a
subscriber's 140 bill 105. For instance, the billing system 110
computes add-on costs such as franchise fees, taxes, and the like,
which are not typically presented to a subscriber at the time an
offering 120 is presented for purchase.
[0041] When a subscriber 140 wishes to purchase the offering 120,
the price algorithm 125 is executed to determine the offering's
list price based upon marketing data. Thereafter a purchase order
is sent to the billing system 110, which examines the metadata 127,
and uses the metadata to compute add-ons to the offering price.
According to one aspect of the present invention, after the
subscriber 140 requests a particular offering for delivery, the
service 115 communicates with the controller 130 to request
resources to fulfill the service 115, and the billing system 110 is
requested to bill for the service. The billing system 110 only
receives a message indicating that the offering should be placed on
the subscriber's bill 105, and need not know about what is involved
in getting the service delivered to the subscriber.
[0042] When a purchase is made, it is only the billing portion of
the offering that is provided to the billing system 110. The
billing system 110 is limited to computing add-on costs the
subscriber does not see until receiving the bill 105. For instance,
continuing with the illustrative example of an MOD service, where a
subscriber orders an MOD, the MOD service or the marketing
component 129 establishes a price of the service, which is provided
to the price algorithm 125 to compute what a typical subscriber
will pay for the offering, the list price of the offering. As is
explained in reference to FIG. 4, this list price may further be
changed depending upon the identity of a particular subscriber,
such that offering price may be tailored to individual subscribers.
Also included within the offering 120 in the form of metadata 127
is the billing data that subjects the MOD to taxes, franchise fees,
etc. The billing system 110 applies taxes, adds in franchise fees,
and executes the processing required to generate financial
statements provided on a subscriber's bill 105. To accomplish this
processing the billing system 110 may include tax tables
corresponding to different services. Therefore, a service may be
taxable at a particular rate provided within a table stored by the
billing system 110.
[0043] It should be appreciated that multiple tax methods may be
generated where tax rates and franchise fees are calculated for
services, and thus, each offering 120 will refer to a particular
tax method. More specifically, the metadata 127 points to a
particular tax method which the billing system 110 uses to compute
taxes/fees. Knowledge of different types of tax structures is
therefore retained in the billing system 110. On the other hand,
the service 115 retains information on which particular offerings
120 are associated with a particular tax method. Thus, the service
115 does not know anything about the tax structure itself. The
billing system is limited to computing and adding on costs the
customer does not see until he receives the bill. According to one
preferred embodiment of the invention, this requires that the
billing system 110 set up tax structures and franchise fees owed
for various categories or types of services. For instance,
broadcast services may be taxed at a first rate, and have a
franchise fee, while interactive services may be taxed at another
rate with a different franchise fee.
[0044] FIG. 4 shows a block diagram view of a cable system 150 of
the present invention according to one aspect of the invention. The
system 150 generally includes a billing system 155, customer
service representative (CSR) 160, headend 190, deal maker 215, and
STB 220. The billing system 155 is similar to the billing system
110. At least one server located at the headend 190 is running an
Application-A (App-S) 195, where App-S 195 implements a service,
such as the service 115 of FIG. 3. Although FIG. 4 will be
discussed with reference to a single App-S 195 being associated
with only one service, there may be many applications like App-S
195 installed in the headend 190, where each is associated with
multiple services. As illustrated in FIG. 4, App-S 195 communicates
with the STB 220, and more specifically, with the Application-C
(App-C) 225 within the STB 220. App-S 195 and App-C 225 run in
conjunction with each other to execute offerings and to implement a
service on the STB 220. Typically, App-C 225 and App-S 195 are one
piece of software created as a unit, and are not required to be
interoperable with other network services. A developer of App-S 195
and App-C 225 can utilize whatever protocol works on the HFC
network, which can include the headend 190. Facilities in the HFC
network can be used to implement this communication, which can
occur using Internet protocol, broadcast file system (BFS),
pass-through messaging (part of the DSM-CC standard), a modem, or
the like.
[0045] As an illustrative example, App-C 225 may be a Watch-TV
application, which digitally tunes the STB 220 to a particular
channel. If, for instance, in a particular cable system channel 500
corresponds to CNN, then App-C 225 running on the STB 220 provides
the STB 220 a particular frequency and the required data fields
that enables the STB 220 to tune to CNN when the subscriber selects
channel 500. In another illustrative example, App-C 225 may present
a list of offerings (e.g., including offering 120 of FIG. 3) for
purchase by a subscriber from a service. Preferably the offerings
are presented to the subscriber via a graphical user interface
(GUI), and selectable by the subscriber through the use of a remote
control that allows the subscriber to navigate the GUI and select
an offering. Alternatively the user may view the offerings that are
presented on a television set and utilize a telephone to purchase a
particular offering. Regardless of the method used to display and
accept an offering, once the subscriber has selected an offering,
App-C 225 transmits a message to the App-S 195 identifying the
offering purchased by a subscriber.
[0046] According to one embodiment of the present invention, every
application includes a number of objects, or interfaces, for
executing one or more services and for facilitating the billing of
the subscriber for usage of the services. As shown in FIG. 4, App-S
195 includes an application object 200, service object 200 and
offering object 210. The application object 200 is that part of the
application that must be exported by the App-S 195 to run the
application on the STB 220. The service object 205 is the
application plus one or more parameters that define the particular
service implemented by the App-S 195. For instance, where Watch-TV
represents the App-S 195, CNN may be a service implemented by the
Watch TV service. Different parameters provided to Watch-TV, on the
other hand, may result in an HBO service. Therefore, for each App-S
there may be many services definable by the service object 204.
Last, the offering object 210, also referred to herein as the
offering, defines the particular service item offered to a
subscriber for purchase. For instance, the offering object 210 may
comprise a particular movie purchasable by a subscriber from a MOD
service.
[0047] After an offering is transmitted to the STB 220 and selected
for purchase by a subscriber, a buy request is transmitted from the
STB 220 to the App-S 195. Upon receipt of the buy request from the
STB 220, the App-S 195 will first determine the identity of the STB
220 that submitted the buy request. The identity of the STB 220 is
determined by examining the MAC address of the STB 220, which is
transmitted to the App-S 195 with the buy request. MAC addresses,
as are well known in the art, are unique addresses associated with
each STB 220. Because the App-S 195 does not maintain a database of
STB MAC addresses, or the subscribers associated with MAC
addresses, the App-S 195 transmits a subscriber identification
request to the one or more network components that maintain such
information. The subscriber profile associated with the STB 220 MAC
address is retrieved, and identifies the subscriber whose account
will be responsible for paying for the offering 210. Because the
request may originate from a home having multiple residents, it
will be appreciated that the subscriber identified will typically
be the resident responsible for paying for the cable service.
However, it will also be appreciated by those of skill in the art
that each resident may have one or more codes, passwords or IDs
that may be required to be input along with the buy request, such
that a particular person associated with that request can be
identified and billed.
[0048] Upon receiving the subscriber identity from the equipment
object, the App-S 195 can create a purchase, which is a link
between an offering and a subscriber identifying what is being
purchased, and by which subscriber. The App-S 195 then calculates
the offering price, utilizing the price algorithm contained within
the offering 210 and marketing data provided by the marketing
components and, according to one aspect of the invention, the deal
maker 215.
[0049] Because the offering price takes into account both the
offering 210 and the subscriber purchasing the offering 210, this
is the first point at which the offering price can be determined
for the particular subscriber making the purchase. For instance,
although an offering 210 may be associated with a particular price
set up by the service generating the offering 210 and available to
typical subscribers regardless of subscriber identity, a particular
subscriber profile may result a better price of the offering 210,
such as where a special marketing event occurs for a class that
includes the subscriber. Additionally, a subscriber's service
record may be considered to determine in the subscriber is eligible
to receive discounts. For instance, because a subscriber may
purchase many MODs, the subscriber may become eligible for a
special rate for a MOD. Additionally, as noted above with respect
to FIG. 3, a marketing server may also identify discounts to all
subscribers regardless of their identity. As noted above, the
offering price may include data provided by the deal maker 215. The
deal maker 215 is a rules engine for determining discounts for
subscribers based on the subscriber's purchase history and the
services offered in the system. According to one aspect of the
invention, the deal maker 215 is an application implemented by a
server that may be separate from the one or more marketing
applications 129 illustrated in FIG. 3, as the deal maker 215 can
include rules that apply across multiple services rather than
specific to one service being implemented. The offering 210 can
communicate with the deal maker 215 to request deal data associated
with a particular offering.
[0050] Thus, after the offering price is calculated, taking into
account any special offers or discounts provided by the deal maker
215, an eligibility check is made to determine if the subscriber
has sufficient funds or credit to receive the purchased offering.
To make this determination the APP-S 195 requests a credit check
from the billing system 155, which will determine whether the
subscriber has credit to receive the offering. The billing system
will then acknowledge that the subscriber has sufficient credit, or
indicate that the subscriber should not be able to purchase the
selected offering. This may utilize a CSR 160 in communication with
the billing system 155. If the subscriber is authorized to receive
the service offering, the App-S 195 will then provision the
offering 210.
[0051] According to one aspect of the invention that the price of
an offering may be calculated based upon a price per unit. For
instance, where the subscriber orders a MOD, each movie may
correspond to one unit. In this embodiment, only after the price
per unit is transmitted to the APP-S 195 will the App-S 195 respond
with the number of units requested by the subscriber. According to
one aspect of the invention this occurs after the credit check
request is made to the billing system. Finally, the units
established by the App-S 195 may be multiplied by the unit price
and forwarded to the billing system 155 for inclusion on a
subscriber bill. This allows the system 150 to bill for services
that may be based upon time, such as Internet service. Thus, when a
subscriber logs onto the Internet a unit price may be calculated,
such as a price per minute. Not until after the subscriber
completes accessing the Internet will the number of minutes the
subscriber accessed the Internet be identified so that a line item
can be created and forwarded to the billing system 155. This allows
a service to be billed on a usage basis.
[0052] According to the systems and methods of the present
invention, the billing system is only responsible for billing,
rather than the provisioning, of services. This allows new services
to be quickly added to cable systems without the time consuming and
expensive task of configuring the billing system specifically for
new services added to the system.
[0053] Many modifications and other embodiments of the invention
will come to mind to one skilled in the art to which this invention
pertains having the benefit of the teachings presented in the
foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings. Therefore, it
is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the
specific embodiments disclosed and that modifications and other
embodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the
appended claims. Although specific terms are employed herein, they
are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for
purposes of limitation.
* * * * *